John Longmire said the Sydney Swans will prepare for Carlton’s best this Saturday night at the SCG.

Carlton ended a five-game losing streak last week in emphatic style, producing one of their best performances of the season with an 85-point victory over St Kilda.

Longmire said the Swans would expect no less than a top quality display from the Blues this weekend.

“They ran really hard and were able to score pretty freely because of their work rate (against St Kilda), so they’re a good team,” Longmire said.

“They showed their best on the weekend, which was good to see, because you see the opposition at their best and that’s what we try and plan for every week.

“They’re a good team and they showed it on the weekend and that’s what we’ll plan for this week.”

Despite having an inconsistent season, which has seen Carlton win five games for the year, Longmire said last week’s performance was an indication of the Blues’ potential.


The coach highlighted the wealth of talent on the Blues’ list, including the likes of Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy, Chris Judd and talented young forward Levi Casboult, who booted four goals against the Saints.

“They’ve got some good talent of their list,” he said.

“I think they’ve got something like seven or eight top-ten draft picks on their list.

“If you look at their game on the weekend they had Gibbs, Judd, Murphy and (Chris) Yarran, so they’ve got some really good strong talent in their team.

“Then you throw in blokes like Casboult, who is one of the best contested marks in the game at the moment, and then you’ve got (Michael) Jamison and (Kade) Simpson and these guys, and you see they’re a very good team.”

The Swans will be looking to post a 12th consecutive victory this weekend, which will equal the club’s winning record previously achieved in 1918, 1933-34 and 1935.

While acknowledging that the winning streak was an achievement for his side, Swans co-captain Kieren Jack said equalling the record was not a focus for this weekend’s match.

“That’s all outside talk and it’s something that we can’t really control,” Jack told Sky Sports Big Sports Breakfast this week.

“John (Longmire) has been very good internally in just keeping us on track and making sure that we are taking it week by week.

“We’re focusing in really hard on our opponents and just taking it as it comes.

Jack said it was important to not look too far ahead, particularly after two of the competition’s top sides suffered surprise losses last round.

“On the weekend we saw Hawthorn get done and Port Adelaide get done, which nobody really thought was going to happen,” he said.

“You can’t make any conclusions yet because there are a lot of quality teams out there and you’ve got to respect everyone and take each game on its merit.”